gasninja wrote:I would say the 98 7542 at life in a tea cup is probably not a menghai tea factory production. Given that every other menghai 7542 has a "Menghai" character on the neifi. I am not sure if the character means menghai but every other cnnp wrapper menghai has this character there. This cake has the zhong in its place. The cake does not look right either.

I would be very happy to be proven wrong in this. By a pic of this batch ticket stating that this was Menghai tea factory product. I am not unhappy with my purchase as I said I feel like given the quality of the sample that I tried the tea is was a fair value for the price. I did not feel that way with the cake from pu-erhshop.

I guess your nei fei with Menghai character is the nei fei with name of Menghai factory. For 7542 before 2000, different style of Manghai factory nei fei, CNNP nei fei (with name of CNNP Yunnan Branch instead of name of Menghai factory) and CNNP nei fei without either name are all quite common, if there is a nei fei at all. In the collector's market, I would imagine the type with Menghai factory nei fei is the most expensive if other aspects are comparable between different products, with the exception of a few very famous products of different nei fei styles. If there were still a batch ticket for the product in discussion, it wouldn't have been of the same price. I think that's the key why some people think pre-2000 Dayi should be very expensive and some people don't think so.

I don't know much about evaluating cake shape or leaf outlook of older puerh, but I'm interested in hearing your comments on this.

I kinda think Dayi is actually worth it. I've actually had other factories from the mid-to-late nineties, and they don't tend to be that good (I have not had Xiaguan). The real issue here is that there are very few well-stored examples of Dayi out there. The Dayi price was worth it, oh, early Dec '10, and it was expensive then! Nowadays, the price is for not exactly great stuff. Not inclined to spend money on both "good" and "Dayi".

Next, I think this is going to be one of those crazy years. LBZ from a well-known maker (like Fujin) and from 2005-2006 are now north of $800! That Dingxin Yiwu from 2001 that peeps used to be able to buy for $45 a couple of years ago, I've seen for north of $300. It's just crazy out there with lots of merchants really going for that big money-spending-client score. None of that is realistically supportable, in my mind. At best, it will stagnate forever at those prices...

shah82 wrote:I kinda think Dayi is actually worth it. I've actually had other factories from the mid-to-late nineties, and they don't tend to be that good (I have not had Xiaguan). The real issue here is that there are very few well-stored examples of Dayi out there. The Dayi price was worth it, oh, early Dec '10, and it was expensive then! Nowadays, the price is for not exactly great stuff. Not inclined to spend money on both "good" and "Dayi".

Next, I think this is going to be one of those crazy years. LBZ from a well-known maker (like Fujin) and from 2005-2006 are now north of $800! That Dingxin Yiwu from 2001 that peeps used to be able to buy for $45 a couple of years ago, I've seen for north of $300. It's just crazy out there with lots of merchants really going for that big money-spending-client score. None of that is realistically supportable, in my mind. At best, it will stagnate forever at those prices...

Where is it your seeing that 2001 Dingxin selling for $300? I'm still seeing it from the same vendor selling for $31 USD.

shah82 wrote:I kinda think Dayi is actually worth it. I've actually had other factories from the mid-to-late nineties, and they don't tend to be that good (I have not had Xiaguan). The real issue here is that there are very few well-stored examples of Dayi out there. The Dayi price was worth it, oh, early Dec '10, and it was expensive then! Nowadays, the price is for not exactly great stuff. Not inclined to spend money on both "good" and "Dayi".

I agree Dayi is pretty good. Many people believe tea from Menghai region is more suitable for long-term aging than tea of some other regions, and I think they have good reasons to believe so. On the other hand, I guess Dayi will be over-priced for a long time. Not only Dayi itself is inflating its tea price, but also the (relatively) numerous Dayi collectors in China are highly motivated to keep Dayi over-priced.

I saw what I thought I saw by browsing shops that had LBZ in them, and I saw a Dingxing (which does not come up in the direct search). I may well have forgot to convert yuan to dollars, but even 300 yuan doesn't show up in a direct search.

TIM...

Virtually all shops in my little hotlist, aside from HouDe, consider pre-2005 puerh, aged puerh. Although, that probably is just a holdover, since Houde doesn't change things up much, and besides, it will clear up nicely when the last few 2004 and older items are sold--I believe there are only three.

I feel like i've been consuming way to much tea lately at 20-30gm day. I decided to focus on seasoning my 70ml xishi pot that i bought from Jing while cutting down my intake. So tonight i brewed 3.5gm of loose 1986 spring tips. Starts off slightly bitter but slowly turns sweet. Somewhat less aged tasting than i'd expect from a 26yr old loose tea but definitely a lovely affair. I've noticed this pot prefers 3-4gm for optimal flavor and aroma. Using 5gm it seems flat with little aroma. Not enough room for leaves to expand? I'm planing to order some more expensive samples from EOT but have been too nervous to use this pot for them so i've been holding off. I think this pot might be ready now.

Heh, I have to keep (sadly) reminding myself that 2002 teas are now 10 years old. Yikes!

G-off-re -- it could be an expansion issue, but it also might be a water-amount issue. I wonder how much water you can add to the pot when it has 3g vice 5g? Less water means longer sessions and possibly slower 'awakening' of the leaves.

Less water also means you are adding less total heat to the pot -- normally 5-10mL less water might not seem like a big deal, but with these smaller numbers (like 70mL), it might start to make a difference? I don't know, I haven't played around with that sort of thing before...

Shah here you go if you want the dixings you got to hit up "999 my heart will always go on" the Titanic Tea Dealer" There still around thirty dollars.http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12332525227 You can even get the bug eaten version for about twenty.

gasninja wrote:Shah here you go if you want the dixings you got to hit up "999 my heart will always go on" the Titanic Tea Dealer" There still around thirty dollars.http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12332525227 You can even get the bug eaten version for about twenty.

But alot of there stuff looks suspect

I'm okay with taking risks. I might order one just to see how it pans out.

I think this is where jim gets allot of his stuff. Im grabbin both bug eaten and non bug eatin Dixings the 98 with the arbor wrapper

98 arbor.png (183.7 KiB) Viewed 2412 times

that I believe is the same one that there was a sample of at pu-erhshop last year I still have some left I remember it being better than the "song pin" (which they also have) the blue label and this frosty looking number.

other cake

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I figure you can never have to much sketchy wet stored tea

Right now I'm drinking 60's dancong life in a tea cup for the first five infusions taste like a nice old GYG then it starts to taste more like an oolong good stuff. This tea packs a Strong warming calming qi.

Ginko I wasn't trying to knock your product. I stated I thought it was a good value. It is just that every cnnp menghai I have seen from the 90's has had a neifi that looks like this or has no characters on the bottom. .

this photo taken from Lau Yu Fat to be used as a point of reference only.Chip if this is a problem please remove

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If you say it is menghai I am definitly not experienced enough to say otherwise.

gasninja wrote:Ginko I wasn't trying to knock your product. I stated I thought it was a good value. It is just that every cnnp menghai I have seen from the 90's has had a neifi that looks like this or has no characters on the bottom.

I know I know. Don't worry. I've always enjoyed communicating with you, and I appreciate very much communication with you and other people here. Sometimes I worry I talk too much which makes other people less likely to talk. I will try to follow the "doctrine of moderation" but it's always a pleasure to learn what you and other people think

2000 Fu Hai brick finally arrived. It contains a hefty assortment of chopped, large whole, hong pin, stems and such. Dry stored for sure so it still has a bit of astringency and roughness that needs a few more years to cure. Overall not what i'd reach for every day but still a nice session that i look forward to again.

G-off-re wrote:2000 Fu Hai brick finally arrived. It contains a hefty assortment of chopped, large whole, hong pin, stems and such. Dry stored for sure so it still has a bit of astringency and roughness that needs a few more years to cure. Overall not what i'd reach for every day but still a nice session that i look forward to again.

Right after I tasted that stuff I put it in my 75% humidity area to help it along. it was sad to see a 12 year old tea taste that young and feel that dry.

96 CNNP Da Ye from EOT probably the most dry stored EOT cake that I have had other than maybe the dry stored traditional character. Similar flavor profile to the 98 camaphor taste yi wu that Auchwk offered the recent 03 houde brick or tai lan yin.